Monday, April 2, 2012

Jeroen Krabbe --Dutch actor and director dies

One film I've seen that he's directed is Left Luggage. This film is about a young Jewish woman named Chaya (played by Laura Fraser), the daughter of Holocaust survivors (played by Marianne Sagebrecht and Maximilian Schell) who takes a job as a nanny for a Hassidic Jewish family.

Here's a scene with Maximilian Schell & Marianne Sagebrecht:

Chaya's father is obsessed with finding his left luggage and her mother is obsessed with preparing food and feeding it to her family.

The attractive Isabella Rossellini goes against the grain and takes on the challenging role of the Hassidic Jewish mother Mrs. Kalman. In addition to directing, Krabbe plays the role of the Hassidic Jewish Mr. Kalman.

Here's an image from Left Luggage of Jeroen Krabbe as Mr. Kalman:

Sidenote: one unfortunate habit that is shown in this film is the habit of feeding ducks. If you watch The Ducks & Us, you'll learn why people feed ducks & why it's not good for the ducks. But the ducks do stimulate Simcha, the quiet child to finally start speaking.

Here's an image from the film of Chaya with Simcha (Laura Fraser & Adam Monty)

Only Love, an American film based on a book by Erich Segal with Rob Morrow & Marisa Tomei

I think that actors who know more than one language can find many more opportunities to practice their craft. Rutger Hauer is another Dutch-born actor who speaks multiple languages (Dutch, German and English). He's been in a number of different films and TV shows but I still think that one of his best roles ever was Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

But here I digress, because the actor in Left Luggage that I really, really admired was Topol as Jacov Apfelschnitt.This character is the bridge between the secular and Hassidic world.
He has an excellent monologue. It's something like,

"You are no more to blame than the trees for standing by, the ducks for luring him or the water for embracing him."

I'm merely going on memory for this actual dialogue. The film is almost worth seeing for the amazing manner in which Topol delivered it! By the way, Topol is best-known for having frequently played the role of Tevye in the Fiddler on the Roof

Update: I was just told by someone who has a connection with Jeroen Krabbe that he's still alive and that she would definitely know it if he had died recently. I'm going to try to find a link to substantiate that.Okay, according to IMDB, he's still alive and was acting in 2013. Here's a link to his page in IMDB.